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Safad

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aliases

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Summary

Galilee town of 9,500 Arabs and 2,400 Jews, taken by the Palmach in April-May 1948 after its rural hinterland was cleansed under Operation ‘Broom’; in Pappe’s account most of its people were driven out and the 100 old people allowed to stay were expelled to Lebanon in June.

Details

  • Most of Safad’s Jews were Ultra-Orthodox with no interest in Zionism, and its eleven-member national committee — notables, ulama, merchants, landowners and ex-activists of the 1936 Revolt, of which Safad had been a major centre — had the illusion it would fare better than other urban centres (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.126-127).
  • More than 400 Arab volunteers were present, only half armed with rifles; the Syrian officer Ihasn Qam Ulmaz held the defences against the Palmach until Adib Shishakly, the ALA’s new Galilee commander, replaced him with an incompetent officer (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.127).
  • With the villages of its vicinity cleansed first, 1,000 Palmach troops concentrated on the town on 29 April 1948 — Pappe gives the battle over Safad as lasting until 1 May — drove most of the people out and allowed only 100 old people to stay (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.126-127).
  • On 5 June 1948 David Ben-Gurion noted in his diary that the 100 old people left in Safad were expelled to Lebanon (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.127).
  • The hinterland operation, ‘Broom’ (matateh), cleansed the villages along the Tiberias-Safad highway, beginning with Ghuwayr, and Ayn al-Zaytun, a mile west of Safad, was massacred on 2 May 1948 to demoralise the town (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.138-139, p.141-143).
  • Sitta’s register lists Safad (Arab) at S 494: dated 10-05-48, Arab Population 48 of 11,055 on 4,431 dunums, with 44,532 UNRWA-registered refugees; the Safad district subtotal is 52,248 people and 531,602 dunums over 78 main-list localities (The Palestinian Nakba 1948 — The Register of Depopulated Localities in Palestine, PDF p.17-18).

The Palestinian Nakba 1948 — The Register of Depopulated Localities in Palestine, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Ayn al-Zaytun, Adib Shishakly, Moshe Kalman, Palmach

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